I was hoping that some of you far more tech saavy types could give me some advice about buying a PDA. I'm not quite sure which are the better ones to look at nor how much functionality/realistic battery life etc I can expect from them.

Its like buying a normal PC, in some regards so do you just want to keep names and address in it, or do you want to have it as a navigation aid with navman or TomTom on it?
Do you want it to act as a phone as well?

Will you be using it just as a MP3 player?

All this will account to which type of PDA is right for you, as in the processor speeds.

Well, my new phone will be with me in august, that can cover the phone bit. MP3's never bothered me, not really in the places i'll be using it.

Some of the features I'd heard of that would be useful, is the ability to open documents (ms word?), spreadsheets, etc and create new ones. Address book would be a useful feature too. Perhaps some ability for a game or two for those horribly long train journeys that come up now and again. Possibly some form of connectivity so documents can be transferred to a computer or via e-mail?

All I see when I look at those available is a lot of techno guff, some mention of ms word... some mention the ability to be a navman (quite scary!) but GPS seems a little silly to pay out for unless it wasn't much more. So confusion tends to come from it.

I've had them for a while now. Yes, they are a bit big to carry around all the time, but you soon get used to it.

The latest one connects to the Internet using GPRS and WiFi and has all the programs such as Word & Excel. You can watch video and can even download DVD's to the memory and watch at your leisure. It syncronises with your PC to update Outlook contacts etc. Memory is inbuilt and also a SD or MMC card (1GB+ available now). Tri-Band for using in the States as well.

I've had it for a while now. It's not too big to carry around all the time.

It connects to the Internet using GPRS and has all the programs such as Word & Excel. You can watch video and can even download DVD's to the memory and watch at your leisure. It syncronises with your PC to update Outlook contacts etc. Memory is inbuilt and also a memory stick duo card (1GB+ available now). quad-Band for using all over the world.

I did look into the idea of a combined phone/pda but felt that I put my phone through activities I wouldn't want to risk a PDA, nor a big expensive phone, in and a larger phone with more tech can only mean a) more chance of something breaking and b) more expensive to replace. Keeping the two things seperate seems to be the wisest course. The P910i did tempt though.

I've got a Dell Axim X50V. Extremely good spec, good battery life and has onboard wifi and bluetooth. I picked up a Dell GPS kit for it on ebay for 60 quid which had up to date UK and Europe mapping. Has about 90 meg of storage onboard and MMC and SD slots for expansion. All in all its an excellent bit of kit, but i dont actualy care, work paid for it.

I've never wanted to do enough fancy things to move over to the Pocket PC stuff - I use a Palm Tungsten T5 now. It's predecessor was invaluable & went right through Telic 1 without a mishap. Palm does all the stuff you want - it does it on a more stable platform and the battery life kicks the Pocket PC into touch - I can get way over a week on a single charge with heavy use.
Don't bother combining the phone/PDA thing. There are plenty secure type places I can use my PDA but not a phone - switch one off and not the other - not difficult.

I have an old bomb-proof mobile phone (Nokia rubberised) for which I carry a spare battery (tiny) and a notebook. I find the battery life on my note-book is great - it never runs out, and I can always nick someone else's pen.

Am I old fashioned? I only got a mobile because my then girlfriend got annoyed that she could never get hold of me and bought me one.